The OP Loftbed Mission
Frequently Asked Questions about OP Loftbed:
The mission of the OP Loftbed Company is: To Provide Opportunities for Self Empowerment. We want to provide people with the tools they need to reach their fullest potential as a human being. This philosophy is the driving force behind our plans, our products, our business opportunities, our partnerships, and even our scholarship opportunity. Let us provide you with an opportunity for self empowerment!
How We Got Started
When Charles Cranford’s sister started college, it was incredibly obvious that there just wasn’t a lot of extra room in her dorm. The only way that she could have any room to move around was to buy a loft bed. Since Charles worked as an engineer, he decided to design and build a loft bed for his sister.
Normally, Charles applies his training to much larger structures, but here he used his knowledge of engineering to develop one of the sturdiest loft beds ever made. Good design lends itself to structural integrity.
The bed quickly became at hit at his sister’s college and many students asked Charles to build loft beds for them, based upon this design. Charles worked from his original CAD drawings to build these beds.
Early in 2000 Charles’ friend and co-worker Ricky Spears had started doing work as a freelance web designer. Most of his business was brochure-ware type sites and he needed an e-commerce client. Based upon the recommendation of another co-worker they decided to try selling Charles’ loft bed plans as an e-commerce experiment. The experiment has been a resounding success!
How We’ve Grown
The OP Loftbed Company began selling loft bed plans to do-it-yourselfers in the Spring of 2000. Originally we offered only the Twin and Twin Extra Long size plans in our Original “Tall” Height configuration. People began to request plans for other sizes and we were glad to provide them. We were the first company to provide plans for building Queen and King size loft bed plans.
Because of the extreme sturdiness of our loft bed design, we began to get a large number of requests for plans for bunk beds with the same solid design. Plans for the OP Bunkbed were then added to our product line in 2001. Over the years our line of plans has expanded to include medium and short height loft bed plans and a medium height bunk bed plan. We also offer a number of free plans for accessories our customers can build for their OP Loftbed.
As word spread about the OP Loftbed design, people with no desire to build their own loft bed began to inquire about where they could purchase these sturdy loft and bunk beds. In response to public demand, we began the OP Loftbed Preferred Manufacturers Program in the Spring of 2001. This program gave people around the country the opportunity to start or expand their own business while insuring that our customers receive a high quality product without having to pay high shipping costs normally associated with shipping large furniture.
Since the large majority of our customers are college students, we wanted to give something back to that community. In the Spring of 2002, we offered the first OP Loftbed $500 Scholarship Award. A scholarship unlike any other to date.
Where is OP Loftbed headed in the future? It’s a dog-eat-dog world out there, and we don’t like to give our competition any more information than we must. Suffice it to say that OP Loftbed is a rock solid company that has great visions and goals for the coming months and years. You can expect to see new products and variations, several new FREE plans, and many totally unexpected offerings. Visit our web site regularly to see what we’ve got going on or sign up for our free mailing list and we’ll tell you what’s going on!
To find out how we got our name click here